Raven Reviews’ Rating System

This is for the voracious readers of my blog and even the casual observer (read it more). You may have noticed that at the end of every review I list the number of stars I give a film. Why do I do this and what does each star mean? Well, officially I do the star system because I hate assigning a grade (A, B, F, C-) for a movie. Now what are my criteria?

Generally, if I give a film four stars (such as Rio, Kill Bill Vol. 1) it means that I have no negative criticism for it or, if I do have negative criticism it is so minimal that it doesn't detract from my love of the rest of the film. On the flip side if I give a film zero stars (The Hottie and The Nottie, Freddy Got Fingered, Friday the 13^th: The Final Chapter) it means I have nothing but criticism for it. Either I find the subject matter approached in deplorable manner or just hate the film. Rarely do I hate a film enough to warrant zero stars and even more rare is a "No Star Rating". My reasons for this are more often because I just couldn't make it through the whole film (remember when I reviewed Hangover Part II?) or the star system is unsuited for something as was the case for The Gingerdead Man. That hardly was a movie at all so I guess it doesn't matter if it was worth zero stars or I just wanted to not assign a rating. This is important: A zero stars is not the same thing as a no star rating.

This is about how it breaks down:



Zero Stars

This means I hated everything about the movie

½ ★

This means I only found a ridiculous redeeming quality like the font used for the credits

★

This means that there is something that really turns me off to the rest of it (case in point, the gloomy and gray animation in Once Upon A Forest)

★1/2

Overall not really watchable but features at least one or two things I did like.

★★

Movies I probably would only watch again if I was really bored.

★★1/2

This means that only one or two things are of special significance and near perfect (Like Javier Bardem's performance in Biutiful) but are surrounded by basic slop (like everything else in Biutiful)

★★★

This one is kind of tough to explain. The ratio is rather reversed from two and a half stars

★★★1/2

Sometimes it is something seemingly small that drops a four star film to this rating like the last shot in Thelma and Louise.

★★★★

Every once in a while I am pleasantly surprised and my rating reflects that (Our Idiot Brother). Usually this is reserved for films that are, just like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way.



Above all I must warn that the purpose of the stars should not be taken out of context of the review itself. You can't compare two completely different reviews and say that only the stars matter.

This post is dedicated by My Idiot Father who for whatever reason doesn't get my system.